C# Programming Guide
Main() and Command Line Arguments (C# Programming Guide)

The Main method is the entry point of your program, where you create objects and invoke other methods. There can only be one entry point in a C# program.

C#
class TestClass
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        // Display the number of command line arguments:
        System.Console.WriteLine(args.Length);
    }
}
Overview

  • The Main method is the entry point of your program, where the program control starts and ends.

  • It is declared inside a class or struct. It must be static and it should not be public. (In the example above it receives the default access of private.)

  • It can either have a void or int return type.

  • The Main method can be declared with or without parameters.

  • Parameters can be read as zero-indexed command line arguments.

  • Unlike C and C++, the name of the program is not treated as the first command line argument.

In This Section

C# Language Specification

For more information, see the following sections in the C# Language Specification:

  • 1.1 Hello World

See Also

Reference

Inside a C# Program

Concepts

C# Programming Guide

Other Resources

Visual C# Samples

Tags :


Community Content

Daniel Rieck
Accessing command line arguments outside of Main

If you need to access command line arguments somewhere else than the Main method, you can call the Environment.GetCommandLineArgs() method.

Tags :

Page view tracker